It is all about watches.

Sunday, 10 January 2016

You have heard about it, you have dreamed of it, you almost bought it in black for a premium and then one day you finally found it....

This is the story of most of the owners of the pilot full lume. Till 2013, there were not more than 100 pieces around and this watch was like the big foot of watches. Then in 2014, HMT decided to bring watches from their Chinar factory to their Ranibagh factory. The dials of few of those watches were changed. Some of them were given these 'extra' pilot dials. As a result, these watches suddenly became one of the most common watches around and it lost it's collectors value significantly. Anyways, enough of my snobbish watch talks. Let's dive into the review...

CASE

The watch has a stainless steel case. My version is the redialed Chinar factory version, so it has a screw in case-back. The sides are unpolished and pretty rough but do not feel so when the watch is worn. The case measures approx.35mm diameter without crown and lugs, it is approx. 11mm thick including the crystal. The case-back says shock proof, water resistant, stainless steel, HMT 0398 india. The crystal is made of acrylic and is dome shaped. I broke the original crystal of my watch therefore mine has a replacement. I changed the original leather strap which was very thick and shiny to a thinner, more comfortable one.

The 0398 shows where the watch case was made and when. 03 means the watch factory 3 (Chinar). The 98 means the year 1998.

The side opp. to the crown, unpolished and rough. Notice how the lugs curve down to wrap around the wrist.

The side with the crown. This side too, is pretty rough. The crown is large and easy to grip while winding.

DIAL

The dial is matte finish with hand applied lume. The hand applied lume means that no two watch dials will be the same. The edge of the dial has markings to tell the time right down to the minute. This feature along with the lumed Arabic numbers gives this watch a vintage aviator's watch kind of look. The printing is not perfect but I can live with it...

The movement is the standard HMT 0231 Handwoud movement found in other mens' three hand time non-date mechanical watches offered by HMT. The same movement is found in my Akash, It has 17 jewels and parashock shock protection which works pretty well. Here is a picture:

This is the move movement of my Akash. The pilot has the same movement.

LUME PERFORMANCE

The lume of the watch does not last a lot. At max it lasts 20 minutes. Here is a picture:

Friday, 27 March 2015

Ricoh India Mechanical Watch With

Lorsa cal. P62 Movement

This post is a Tutorial for beginners, who are interested in horology. Here i am using a P62 movement , whose images have been taken while i serviced it. I will guide you with images about dismantling and Cleaning. Click on the pictures to enlarge them. Do it on your own risk, we are not responsible if you damage or break your watch. Be careful while removing parts (especially springs) as they may fly out and injure you. Moreover here I have removed a few parts before letting down the mainspring so that if there are any faults in the movement, one can find them out.Oiling will be covered in another post

Introduction To The Watch And The Movement :

The watch is an old one , the dial says it is a Ricoh india. On the movement it is written Timastar. The seconds hand is missing. It has a P62 Movement made By Lorsa ,it came with 17 Jewels. The company is based in France. I doubt this is the original movement because a ricoh movement should be stamped ricoh.

THE DIAL & CASE

The dial , RICOH INDIA , 17 Jewels

The Movement, Lorsa P62 With TIMESTAR STAMPED

SERVICE WALK THROUGH

The movement is taken out of the case. The Setting lever should be pressed while pulling the crown to take out the stem. The hole for the setting lever is shown in the picture.

Then the Movement drops out and the case can be kept aside

The next step is to lift the hand and the dial. For lifting the hands , Hand lifting tool is required

This is The Tool.See the Followong Pictures to understand the process of using the tool.

The Use of the tool is explained below , it lifts both hands at the same time. I recommend using a dial protector although I didn't use one.

Now the Hands are removed and can be kept aside.

Now to remove the dial , This watch has no dial feet and dial is stuck to the movement with an adhesive.So a screwdriver us used to pry off the dial(If dial is tight then use a blade to break the adhesive and remove the dial).

The residue of the adhesive can be seen on the movement.

The first part that is removed is the Hour wheel, Tweezers are used to lift the part , and then remove the dial washer from the hour wheel.

Now the cannon pinion is removed carefully, so it doesn't fly accross the room ;)

After flipping the movement. Now is the time to let down the mainspring. The click is pulled while holding the crown and then the crown is slowly and gradually released so that the mainspring can be unwound. The click then doesn't engage with the ratchet wheel.

Then the Movement is out of power now and the balance wheel is removed.

After that The pallet-fork(Lever), is carefully removed .

Now the barrel bridge is to be removed , the two bridge screws and the ratchet wheel screw are unscrewed. Then the bridge is removed .

Now the barrel is stuck so first the wheel train bridge is to be removed.

So now removing the bridge reveals the train of wheels and , this is remembered for assembly. Removal of wheels are to be done with care and barrel should be then lifted.

This reveals the center wheel plate and the center wheel. they are to be removed now.

I have kept all the wheels in order for you people to see. Center wheel, Fourth wheel, Third Wheel, Escape Wheel.

Barrel is Opened and the arbor is not touched as it can fly ;)

I have not touched the keyless works as, this tutorial is for beginners.

CLEANING OF THE PARTS

Now for cleaning, i use benzene , you may use thinner, spirit or high quality petrol. But i suggest using Benzine(C6H6).It can be bought from any laboratory supplier, but be careful as benzene is found to be carcinogenic!

For the Benzene pot, I use a china dish which i cover with a disc. You can use anything, Just be creative.

Now the Benzene is added to the dish and parts are carefully placed into the dish. The balance wheel and screws are not added as they will be cleaned afterwards. The dish is covered then.

After that clean with a brush and assemble, oiling will be covered afterwards.